MBB Thoughts

I know we have 2 games left but the season is practically over and it looks like no post season for us, I have a couple of thoughts and points of dicussion.

1. I know we all "expected" this type of season. But am I the only one who held out hope that we would over-acheive and get to the 7-8-9 win mark? (We could still get to 7 with 2 straight wins but I just don't see both happening) We all know what kind of gameday coach Mac is...and I was holding out a little hope he could squeeze a couple more wins out.

2. Did this team improve from the beginning of the season? IMO, we improved and peaked a few weeks ago and we are now on a downhill slide. We have no depth and our stars are just limping home. You can't blame Taylor, Jiri, and Wesley...they had to carry this team offensively all year.

3. I think the defensive pieces and mindsets are in place for the future. Until the Missouri debacle (and I'm guessing the Kansas game this weekend), no one had shot better than 46% against us. We also have out-rebounded many opponents with an undersized team.

4. We need offense...and bad.

5. I hope everyone gets to Hilton next Saturday to send this year's team out with a bang. Wow this year went fast!

6. Here's to next year!

Thoughts?

P.S. Wooo to the 2,000 post mark!

I agree with most of what you said. I think we're at the point where we know that the season is almost over so we're just trying to get through it and pick up the pieces over the summer. I think we'll end up 6-10. I couldn't tell you who we beat because I think both games will be tough for us.

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Originally Posted by cycloneworld

I know we have 2 games left but the season is practically over and it looks like no post season for us, I have a couple of thoughts and points of dicussion.

1. I know we all "expected" this type of season. But am I the only one who held out hope that we would over-acheive and get to the 7-8-9 win mark? (We could still get to 7 with 2 straight wins but I just don't see both happening) We all know what kind of gameday coach Mac is...and I was holding out a little hope he could squeeze a couple more wins out.

2. Did this team improve from the beginning of the season? IMO, we improved and peaked a few weeks ago and we are now on a downhill slide. We have no depth and our stars are just limping home. You can't blame Taylor, Jiri, and Wesley...they had to carry this team offensively all year.

3. I think the defensive pieces and mindsets are in place for the future. Until the Missouri debacle (and I'm guessing the Kansas game this weekend), no one had shot better than 46% against us. We also have out-rebounded many opponents with an undersized team.

4. We need offense...and bad.

5. I hope everyone gets to Hilton next Saturday to send this year's team out with a bang. Wow this year went fast!

6. Here's to next year!

Thoughts?

P.S. Wooo to the 2,000 post mark!

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Congrats on 2000!! double that and you're still behind ISUfan22

I agree with everything you say. The future seems bright to me, and I am very excited to see what our basketball program can achieve with this high level of coaching, and talent that McDermot has never been able to achieve in his past, largely in part to coaching in a midmajor conference..

Next year hopefully will be an improvement, but we all have to remember that we may have a starting Freshman PG and Center, so they will make mistakes.

Damn, it feels good to be a Cyclone!

I was watching Cy-Hawk talk state of the Nations last week and I have to agree with Jon Miller on something - the team will be drastically different next year so this season was just an effort to get through it and not get embarrassed too many times.

Taylor won't be playing the 1. Wesley won't be playing the 4. We'll have probably at least 2 and possibly three guys starting next season who either:

A. Didn't start at the same position last year
or
B. Didn't even play this year

While I'm disappointed as well Cycloneworld, we were picked to finish 11th in the Big 12. At this point we can do no worse than 10th and potentially could finish tied for 6th. I doubt that will happen but regardless ISU has a good chance to match the conference mark of last year's team with... let's face it, not nearly the same amount of talent.

I do agree that we've seen a slide in play the last few weeks and I hope the team can turn it around the next few games and at least play well going into next season. This year we were just trying to get by. Next year we will see a team that McD is trying to build, and I still believe we have an outside chance at a run at the tourney next year.

My starters for next season:

PG: Garrett
SG: Taylor
SF: W. Johnson
PF: Thompson or Brackins (IMO probably Brackins)
C: Jiri

Give these guys an offseason to develop physically and add in the huge amount of depth we'll have next year and we could be looking at a completely different team. Only Jiri and Taylor will be at the same position next season and Taylor was only a part time player at the 2 since he had to share the PG duties.

(I'm not counting out McIntosh at PG for next season... I just haven't seen him consistently run the team)

Sorry, this just got really long but I have been thinking about this a lot lately. McD I'm sure is just as disappointed as we are about how ISU has ended. But he is patient, and we must be as well. Next year will give us a lot better idea of what we'll see over the long haul.

Often, McD's teams at UNI faded late. It's interesting that it happened at ISU this year. Just an observation, not a judgment.

I'm not looking for huge gains next year. I think both Brackins and Garrett are undersized weight wise. Garrett at 170 pounds lacks 30 pounds to deal with the physical nature of the Big 12.

How did we fade this year? Fact is, 3 of our 5 conference wins have come later in conference play.

I like our potential for next season. We add some much needed players and only lose Ceaser & Gray from the guys that saw minutes this year.

I think we peaked after the Kansas loss at Hilton. Sure we beat Baylor (who is bad), the OU win was our best of the season so that was good, and we beat a terrible CU team (barely). With the exception of the OU game, how have we NOT faded?

After the Baylor game we:
1. Got blown out at home by Missouri
2. Got blown out at Texas, although we did make a little run at the end of the game.
3. A good win against OU
4. Got blown out against Kansas State
5. Beat a terrible CU by 1 in the last 1 minutes
6. Got blown out by 37 against Kansas

What do you call that? Progress?

1. We were a couple plays from getting blown out vs. Mizzu. Everyone knows that, including our coach.
2. Did you expect to play with Texas on the road? This just in, Durant is really good. And he's not the only very good player they have.
4. They're physical and experienced. We're not.
6. KU is arguably the best team in the country. See #2.

It's not progress, yet I can't see how you can fairly say we're fading either.

Honestly, with the roster GMac had to work with this year I'm surprised we won as many games as we did. This team has no consistent go to scorer, no reliable point guard, no senior leadership and no one to pick them up off the floor when adversity strikes. We have some talented freshmen and Juco but with very little experience. I'm hoping to see progress next year as we're adding some depth but it's going to take a while to get the foundation set. I like what I've seen of McDermott so far and have confidence he'll right the ship and good things will come for ISU basketball again.

Here's how we faded: Long losing stretch in conference after the mid-way point. Bad margin of loss to MU and KU. Offensive efficiency grows worse with each game. It's a tired, fading team at this point.

I look forward to next year and to the year after even more.

I was at the game Saturday and a previous post about off season weight work is so true. We were getting bumped off the floor by the Kansas players. We need to get the returning players bigger.

I think the most important thing in the future is developing toughness. We need tough minded players that are not going to let the opposing defense make them start the offense from 35 feet out and we need bigs that are going to bump back and make the other team's bigs play from 7-8 feet from the basket like they do to us this year.

A Kansas fan said said in the rest room during a second half break that Iowa State should be embarassed. I told him we were and asked if he was embarassed that this same team took them to overtime last month.

I told him I will enjoy coming back in two years and to see how competitive we will be in the "old barn". While Allen Fieldhouse has a lot of history, I would take a fired up Hilton any day. I still can not bielieve that place holds 16,300 people. There were not many empty seats.

Are driving me crazy when I watch them play.

First off Marsden is not a D-1 basketball player. He has no aggresion. He looks lost most of the time. He can't play defense. I think Ross would make a smart move and go play for a D-2 school are a low D-1 school. I just don't think he can really provide anything for us now or in the future.

Taylor is just way out of control. It looks like the team is playing for Gmac and Taylor is playing for Wayne Morgan. I know he is one of a very few scoring threats out there for us. I wish he would buy in and work the ball around and get good shots.

Macintosh, At least he would be a viable back up if someone were to get into foul trouble. The problem we have right now is he is required to start the game and play to many minutes.

Now All these guys seem to be good guys. I don't like running them down and I know they are not the future. I just had to vent a little bit. Better things to come in the future.

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Originally Posted by ISUFan22

1. We were a couple plays from getting blown out vs. Mizzu. Everyone knows that, including our coach.
2. Did you expect to play with Texas on the road? This just in, Durant is really good. And he's not the only very good player they have.
4. They're physical and experienced. We're not.
6. KU is arguably the best team in the country. See #2.

It's not progress, yet I can't see how you can fairly say we're fading either.

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2. Yes I expected to play with Texas on the road...we showed we could do that in the 2nd half (too bad we failed to show up in the first half)
4. After a terrible 1st half, we competed with them in Hilton.
6. Again, we played them to overtime in Hiton...now we get beat by 37.

That along with beating Missouri at their place and then getting blown out by 22 at home...

Unless Hilton is worth about +20 points, we regressed against KSU and KU. and Hilton was worth -20 points for Missouri...

And we haven't scored more than 53 points in the last 4 games.

I call that fading.

What games did you expect us to win in that losing streak other than CU? Yeah, that was bad loss - yet I don't see another bad loss on our conference resume.

I'm fully aware Mizzu and KU blew us out - that's going to happen sometimes. Look at some of the better teams in the country - even they have some blowout losses. And they actually have a ton of talent and experience. KU lost a starting guard for the game and in his place started a guy that's probably the better player. We can't do anything even close to that.

It's amazing what G-Mac and the players have been able to do so far this season. To expect anything more is just unrealistic.

Doing so is like asking a house cat to have the attributes of a lion. It just ain't gonna happen.